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At one time, I thought "computer virus talk" was just a lot of hype. My attitude quickly changed when my computer became infected with a nasty computer virus that, among other things, destroyed the boot sector of my computer. I spent several hours trying to figure out which virus it was and a couple days trying to remove the virus. The virus was so bad that I finally hired a computer technician to remove the virus and the best he could do was to recommend a low-level format (erasure) of my hard drive. All files that were not backed up were lost. Through that unpleasant experience, I learned the value of anti-virus software and installed anti-virus software on my computer. Eavesdropping software is (perhaps) not as vicious as a computer virus. Eavesdropping software is, in most cases, much more subtle. You may have heard terms such as hacking, intrusion, trojan horses and the like. Although it can be argued that a computer is neither good nor bad, people can use computers for benevolent or malicious purposes. Although I don't understand why, some people spend their time writing malicious code such as a computer virus while others are interested in eavesdropping. If you install a good anti-virus program on your computer you can reduce your computer virus fears and fears of downloading files. There are programs that can detect and remove malicious programs such as trojan horses. And, as previously stated, you can take steps to prvent a computer virus. But what about the issue of privacy? You may have heard (correctly) that hackers can collect information from remote computers on the web and often do so in an undetectable way. If you think about the popularity of email, you should know that email is about as private as sending a postcard. It is technically possible for hackers to collect and read that email. Hackers can use packet "sniffers" and filters to collect items of interest in transit. This is not an attempt to make people paranoid - just a fact of life. If you're like most internet users, you exchange a lot of information over the Internet every day, without ever thinking twice about it. Lots of information travels over the internet in clear text. Maybe you think, "It doesn't concern me, because I don't send anything sensitive over the Net," or you think, "There is no valuable information on my computer that is worth hacking into," or you might think "I will never be hacked! The fact is that computers all over the world have been hacked and personal computers are no exception. Obviously, the attack, if it occurs, begins when the user is online. By becoming aware of some the tools that are available to guard against unpleasant experiences on the web, you are making your life more worry-free. Hackers use tools that monitor, and collect data from other computers. Specific tools of hackers include packet sniffers. Hackers who are determined eventually gain access to computers even if those computers are connected to the net through firewalls. There is some anti-hacking software available that is so sophisticated it can detect unauthorized monitoring of the computer connection, terminate the intruder's connection, and then attempt to trace back the origin of the intrusion. Of course, hackers can "spoof" points of origin. The amazing fact is that people without this type of anti-hacking software are completely unaware that they are the victim of a hacker! Even network adminstrators have discovered that intruders have gained access to the computers they are protecting. One such adminstrator discovered that an intruder had gained root privileges on the Linux system on two occasions and was even bold enough to install an eavesdropper program, which was detected when looking at the list of programs running in the background. That was reason enough for him to shut the whole system down and do a complete security overhaul. Sophisticated hackers are able to do a "clean" login, which is much harder to discover than a brute force attack. That means the intruder has previously obtained the system password, most likely by running a password sniffing program on a host that routes server traffic to the rest of the Net. Since logs can show unauthorized logins from certain of those hosts, this theory is supported by evidence. You might want to keep certain files on your computer private. For example, files to keep private might include data items such as your social security number, your bank account numbers, checking account numbers, personal information such as your name, street address, city, state, zip, your personal telephone number(s), other address lists, medical information, business information, employment information, and any other information that you think should be kept private. Hackers are the most difficult to detect because they (usually) do not damage or alter data on the systems that are broken into. Knowing that there are stealth attacks on individual computers, monitoring of traffic on the net, and the visibility of email, looking at data security is a good idea. There are tools that can be used against virus writers, trojans, eavesdroppers / hackers: anti-virus programs, anti-trojan programs, and encryption programs. Anti-virus software protects your computer against a computer virus. An anti-trojan program will protect you against various trojan programs. Finally, a good encryption program maintains privacy. I wrote the CRYP program so that you can keep certain files private.
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